503 Quotes by Philip Yancey

Prayer is – not just bowing your head a few times a day, it pervades all of life.

Herein lies the most solemn challenge facing Christians who want to communicate their faith: if we do not live in a way that draws others to the faith rather than repels them, none of our words will matter.

One Harlem preacher likens us to the pink plastic spoons at Baskin Robbins: we give the world a foretaste of what lies ahead, the vision of the Biblical prophets. In a world gone astray we should be activity demonstrating here and now God’s will for the planet.

If God doesn’t want something for me, then I shouldn’t want it either.

The apostle Paul had much to say about the immorality of individual church members, but little to say about the immorality of pagan Rome. He did not rail against the abuses in Rome – slavery, idolatry, gladiator games, political oppression, greed – even though such abuses surely offended Christians of that day every bit as much as our deteriorating society offends Christians today.

We truly live only one day at a time. It doesn’t really help to worry about the future, which we can’t control, or the past, which we can’t change.

If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer.

Democracy requires us to recognize others’ rights even when we fundamentally disagree with them. It requires a civility in which I respect a person’s ultimate worth and seek to persuade but not to coerce. For this reason modern democracy grew out of Christian soil.

Rejoicing in suffering” does not mean Christians should act happy about tragedy and pain when they feel like crying. Rather, the Bible aims the spotlight on the end result, the productive use God can make of suffering in our lives. To achieve that result, however, he first needs our commitment of trust, and the process of giving him that commitment can be described as rejoicing.